


On Very Good Authority

by Opalgirl



Category: Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-07
Updated: 2010-10-07
Packaged: 2017-10-15 08:48:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/159125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Opalgirl/pseuds/Opalgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vania first sees Princess Shinkokami and almost wants to pout; this is entire realms of very much unfair.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On Very Good Authority

Vania sees Princess Shinkokami and almost wants to pout.

 

Roald gets a beautiful future wife and the throne?  If she didn't know any better, she'd swear it wasn't fair; it really isn't, when it comes down to it. There are negotiations in progress to offer her hand in marriage to a Gallan prince, and for all she knows, _her_ prospective spouse may have a strong likeness to a potato.  (Kally has it on good authority that _her_ Imperial Betrothed _does not_ resemble a potato, curse her).

 

The Yamani princess is tall and willowy, everything Eastern women have tried to be, and she seems to float around the room in her kimono, nothing but grace and elegance.

 

Roald, as is usual for him, is stiff as a board with his future queen, and Vania sulks. As usual, no one pays attention.   _Give the man a beautiful—gorgeous—lady and he might as well pretend she's not there_ , she thinks.

 

Lianne—Lianne, who would have a career as a diplomat, if it wasn't for her royal birth—tries to socialize properly with the princess and her ladies, in Roald's place. Mother seems to be working with the idea that if she interfered, it would make things worse and Father seems to be content to watch.

 

Liam flirts shamelessly with an unimpressed Lady Haname and Vania rolls her eyes. The lady is at least thirty and clearly not interested in an Easterner half her age, even if he is royal. Goddess, even _she_ can see that. The Yamanis are quite good at not reacting to her brothers' attempts at flirtation, though—a first.

 

Jasson fills in for Roald when their eldest brother is unavailable, squiring Shinkokami about, and is perfectly behaved, although a bit more talkative.

 

Vania sulks, knowing that the princess is unobtainable. She knows the politics involved in this—contrary to what Liam might like to think, she is not an empty-headed idiot—and wouldn't interfere. Besides, Shinkokami is as good as wed to Roald. That doesn't mean she has to like it, so she doesn't. Not one bit.

 

"Sulking doesn't become you, Nia," Liam says to her, as they sit on the dais, dining in state for the first time in months.

 

She ignores him and pushes the food around on her plate, as uninterested in it as Lady Haname is in Liam.

 

"Really?" her elder brother asks, nudging her with his foot. "You've done nothing but sulk since the delegation arrived. Is it the food?"

 

The dinner menus have changed drastically since the Yamanis arrived; Lianne raves about the meals. Vania shrugs. "No."

 

Liam grins. "You know," he says, leaning closer to her and lowering his voice, "I have it on _very_ good authority that the Yamanis are… 'flexible', when they're at home."

 

Vania kicks him under the ancient dining table and shakes her head at him. "Where did you get that from?" she demands.

 

Liam's smirking now and she longs to smack him, but striking her brother in the middle of a state dinner would be inappropriate, to say the least. "They don't mind if a husband or wife takes a lover," he says, his voice dropping further.

 

"You're making that up." Another one of his silly pranks, no doubt.

 

"I'm not," he retorts. "Ask Myles. Better yet, ask the princess herself."

 

 


End file.
